‘The Midnight Walk’ Review
Developer: MoonHood | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 5:30 | Platinum: 8:50
From the minds behind the fairytale Gothic Lost in Random comes a Tim Burton esque tale between a disfigured burnt corpse and his little firey pot companion as they travel the eponymous Midnight Walk. Visually stunning, but there’s not a whole lot of game going on here unfortunately.
The games main appeal and its strongest element is of course the art style. While the aforementioned comparison to Mr Burton is Trite, it’s also fairly apt - a lot of the characters here could have easily been in the background of A Nightmare before Christmas. From the village of Nobodies to the eyes that personify the very dark, everyone here has a striking design. Each is the star of one of the games six chapters, the first 4 of which are fairly inconsequential misadventures on the road to Moon Mountain.
It feels relevant to say that while this game is available both flat screen (how I played) and with the PSVR2. I can’t really remember how the game was advertised – as Flat with VR or vice versa, VR with Flat but I think a lot of my problems are heightened by playing in Flat mode.
The games main gimmick as it were is the ability to close your eyes (Which I reckon works a lot better in VR). When your eyes are closed, your hearing is enhanced which is used to find hidden objects. The problem is that the hearing side of this mechanic is only used maybe 3 or 4 times throughout the game and it’s entirely possible (and quite easy) to brute force these solutions. There isn’t any kind of secret or collectible hidden behind this mechanic. The other use for closing your eyes is causing the environment to change – this would be cool if it was more dynamic but in its current iteration, it’s pressing a button at big obvious eye decorations on walls and watching the wall disappear. It’s not exactly riveting. The only interesting use for the system was playing chicken with enemies that had the eye, freezing and unfreezing them on pressure plates. Beyond that, not a whole lot.
Of course there is also the adorable Potboy. Potboy follows the player’s direction and can be used to light torces for puzzles and… that’s it. There’s no complexity with the things you ask Potboy to do, just light a candle. Sometimes he’ll create a bigger flame if the story or scenario requires it but that’s nothing to do with the players input. Potboy is even made obsolete in a gameplay perspective when the player gets the Matchstick – a little handgun that fires matches. Its sole use is lighting far off candles but can also be used for nearer ones. Sorry Potboy.
When dealing with the enemies, of which there are two main kinds, your options are Running, Hiding and Distracting. Sometimes a mix of two or three. The enemies of this world are attracted to fire, and you, so there’s little to be done other than running and hiding. There’s no combat or any kind of health system – when the monster gets you, you’re dead. Run and hide Amnesia/Outlast Horror isn’t terribly exciting at the best of times, but in these linear areas with very obvious solutions, I almost wonder why they exist.
I liked my experience with The Midnight Walk but there’s a reason my list of caveats and negatives is longer than the praise. I don’t usually mention price either but £33 is quite steep for what is on offer here. Would I recommend the game? On two conditions – on Sale and in VR. Otherwise? A tougher sell than a trip into the dark.
